Imagine being a RETVRN guy about soulless mass produced playground equipment instead of the vastly more interesting, creative, whimsical, and dangerous work of Bob Leathers. Could NOT be me.
As with the reactors in Ukraine (just released their 343rd update on that situation), the best place to get consistent reliable information on these issues going forward is the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).
www.iaea.org/news
(7/n)
Map of the Persian Gulf, highlighting the locations of the Barakah and Bushehr nuclear power plants.
And as you can see from the map, the UAE reactors are built far from population centers, but also along a linear power grid, with not a lot of redundancy.
(6/n)
Google street view photo of UAE nuclear reactors and connecting power grid.
This 2021 google street view highlights how the UAE reactors are connected to the power grid.
(5/n)
As has been unfortunately made clear during the Russia-Ukraine war, reactors are far from immune to escalating conflicts, which presents considerable challenges even if not targeted directly. Mostly about maintaining off-site power connections and onsite cooling systems.
(4/n)
If you didn't know that the UAE has nuclear power plants, don't wonder. They are quite new. South Korean designed and built reactors (APR-1400), has robust containment facilities for the reactor buildings. Each of the 4 reactors is about 1.4 GW, with the last reactor coming online in 2024.
(3/n)
The Iranian reactor is a Soviet-era design, but *not* the Chernobyl-type. Has a robust containment facility for the reactor. About a 1 GW plant, has been running for about 15 years. As you can see from the previous picture, it is water-cooled from the Gulf.
(2/n)
Iran's Bushehr Nuclear Power Plant on the Persian Gulf. A Soviet-era design, but *not* the Chernobyl-type. Has a robust containment facility for the reactor. About a 1 GW plant, has been running for about 15 years.
UAE’s Barakah Nuclear Power Plant. A newer, South Korean designed and built reactor (APR-1400), also has robust containment facilities for the reactor buildings. Each of the 4 reactors is about 1.4 GW, with the last reactor coming online in 2024.
Lots of chatter about infrastructure around the Persian Gulf (refineries, desalination plants, terminals) that could indirectly affect a lot of people. Just going to mention two sites out there because escalation has *not* gone this far. Yet.
Bushehr and Barrakah Nuclear Power Plants.
(1/n)
I need to make a point of building a small cairn over it in the late fall instead of just leaving it stuck randomly in a raised bed.
Purple line construction in Silver Spring, looking westbound from Talbot Street Bridge.
Construction of catenary poles for Purple Line in Silver Spring, MD
Catenary extended to Silver Spring now.
Techno-economic feasibility of Borehole Thermal Energy Storage System connected to Geothermal Heat Pumps in Fairbanks, Alaska, NREL poster.
The severe lack of robust geological data across much of Alaska (where there are people) is a limitation where geothermal could be very useful (heat + power). Currently have district heating plants running off coal.
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
As someone who was taken clothes shopping at the JC Penny's department store (now the Filmore) and ate a lunch counter on Colesville in what's now part of that AFI complex, this discussion makes me feel OLD.
Parking deck entrance and loading dock in a recently built mixed use building in Silver Spring, Maryland. Shown to highlight what is needed for small footprint urban grocery stores.
Yeah, grocery is not just another fungible "retail" category.
Here is the new MOM's in Silver Spring on the ground floor of a mixed use building. Underground parking, but more importantly the loading dock, with a wide enough alley for trucks to back in. If this isn't designed in, it won't happen.
Typical Aldi expectation for retail site of 22k sq.ft., 95 parking spaces, and most importantly, a truck loading dock.
Even the small footprint grocery stores (Aldi/Lidl/Trader Joe's) are bigger now. But they are more defined by having a full scale loading dock for large trucks than anything. It's all about being connected to the existing (highly-efficient) large truck logistics. The old centers don't have that.
This evolution of the stores also speaks to a century of changing retail scales. The center point started as a grocery store (Sanitary) but eventually was a local drug store (Peoples). Mergers and footprint growth meant neither could fit there, now restaurants in a post-online retail world.
Someone needs to make the Fairfax Striped Shirt
People were already capable of going from:
"inorganic kitty litter (zeolite)" to
"an organic kitty litter (zeolite)" to
"an organic kitty litter"
and accidentally end up with guncotton in a 55-gallon drum dirty bomb.
Not looking forward to what the AI tools will do.
USA: Energy for Dominance
Also USA: Where did everyone go?
Cookies are cancelled due to having diverse ingredients.
I mean, baking soda *and* baking powder? Suspicious.
Show them two cookies and ask them to write an essay on why they should get the cookies.
The best essay gets one cookie and the principal gets the other.
Having watched him play in person a few times over the previous couple of years, this one still hurts.
If political also includes not allowing exports and being able to refine US-based oil ... otherwise still tied to global pricing (LNG exports create a similar, but less thorough connection on gas of course).
Also assumes the past decade oil patterns continues without change ...
The future is both MechaHitler and BacchuJesus.
East All Saints parking deck offered as a photo location for downtown Frederick, MD
Prime photo location shown below in red circle at the top of a parking deck:
2 days ago, no grackels.
Yesterday, 50 grackels.
"Snallygaater' viking ship encased in ice during a cold snap in Carroll Creek Park, Frederick MD.
Carroll Creek Park in summer with water garden lilies in the creek.
The boats are there from November until about now. Donations for the favorite boats go part to the charity of choice of the boat sponsor and part to fund the spring - fall water garden.
An absolutely massive Civilian Climate Corps. On the scale of the DHS expansion, but boots on the ground climate workers doing community vulnerability assessments and infrastructure work.
Take all the Big Trump Tax and put it into FEMA.
Go ahead and explicitly tie it into student debt forgiveness, job training placements, housing down payment support, and health insurance.
All evaluations of project benefits based on supporting people not property.
One example. Marykand Geological Survey decades ago set up Zones of Influence areas around deep quarries where pumping of water increases sinkhole problems. Within the ZOI the quarry owners compensate for damages.
But despite lots of new data and quarry changes those ZOI have never been updated.
